ltms 531 week 10: creating the connection (interface & feedback)

LTMS 531: Designing

Games & Simulations Class 10

Review

• Gameplay / Levels

• Mechanics as metaphor

• Game balance

• Deconstructing games

• A deck of lenses

Game Balance

Learning

Fun

Validity

Flow Theory

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (pronounced chick-sent-me-high-ee)

Your Game/Sim Design

1. Describe the game you played OR the game you found as a review of the interface (chapter 8).

2. What guidelines of a great interface were present and which were not?

3. Were there elements of the interface that were dysfunctional from a usability perspective? How and what would you do to fix them?

Wireframing

Interface

Environment as Interface

Feedback in Interface

“In entertainment games the interface is primarily about the action. In serious games the interface is primarily about the feedback.”

Feedback in Interface

Writing Feedback

Feedback Type Example for a Score-Based Element Technical Demands

Evaluative You’re score is 120/200 Measure variables

Interpretive You’re score is 120/200 because you failed to respond quickly enough

Measure variables and model their relationships

Supportive You’re score is 120/200, and you need to improve your response time to challenges

Present and format measured data in a form relevant to the learner

Probing You’re score is 120/200, because your response times were too low, was this because the user interface was too complex, or due to the game being too hard, or was it something else?

User interaction model and support for dynamicism and adaptivity in content through intelligent agency

Understanding You’re score is 120/200, because you found the user interface too complex, as a result you responded too slowly to the challenges, you should complete the tutorial on the user interface

Link expert knowledge and experience to understanding of root causes of failure

“Four-dimensional consideration of feedback in serious games”, http://bit.ly/171Ft2n

http://bit.ly/171Ft2n

Writing Feedback Show don’t’ Tell

• You failed to meet the objectives

of the interaction with this

customer.

• Before you’ve finished your

explanation of the story policy,

the customer turns abruptly,

slams the products she was

going to buy on the counter and

storms out the door. Before the

door store closes, he’s on the

phone with his brother telling him

about the bad experience he just

had at the store.

Writing Feedback Use Dialogue

• The SME reacts negatively to

your suggestion.

• “I’m not sure why you think you

know more about xyz than I do. I

have over 20 years of

experience in this industry and I

am not going to waste my time

being lectured at by someone

who is a junior instructional

designer! What is your boss’s

extension?”

Writing Feedback Show Consequences

• Incorrect, a better choice would

be to establish a perimeter

before proceeding into the

secure area.”

• BLAM! You just triggered a

secondary device killing yourself

and several bystanders.

Julie Dirksen, Storytelling: Narrative Techniques for Learning, http://bit.ly/1bDiN8F

http://bit.ly/1bDiN8F

LTMS 531: Designing Games & Simulations

1. Create the Gameplay Section of the Design

Document: Game Structure, Game

Progression, Game Balance, Game

Technology & Functionality (including

tracking & scoring) – Due on or before

Nov. 20

ltms 531 week 10: creating the connection (interface & feedback)

Education